Ask the Expert: Name of the plant we bought today?
We bought a plant today in one of the private gardens open to the public for the charity. The leaves are dark (blackish purple) with yellow flowers about 5cm and about 1 and half metres. They told us it is called Clarion but alas we can’t find it anywhere online or in the books. We need to know how to take care of it. There are still some closed buds on it so it is just starting to flower at this time of year. Jacqueline
Flower Shop Network‘s Plant Expert Reply: The people who sold you the plant were correct in calling it a Clarion. They just didn’t tell you the complete name – Dahlia ‘Clarion’. What you have is a type of Dahlia. For classification purposes dahlias are divided into various classes according to their form and size. This particular Dahlia is in the single class. This means the flowerheads are composed of a single row of uniform, evenly spaced ray florets.
August is the peak blooming time for Dahlias. To learn more about this wonderful flower, Read Mandy’s August Flower Gets it’s Dues: Dahlia Flower Day post. Once a month she spotlights a flower and this past August it was the Dahlia.
Dahlia happy days lemon